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Serious question, why do new guys torque by feel instead of pulling out the manual
I was doing a landing gear inspection on a 737 at a hangar near DFW and watched a guy with about 8 months on the floor snug up a brake line fitting with a regular open end wrench and call it good. I asked him what spec he used and he said he could feel when it was right. That fitting is supposed to get 135 inch pounds, not whatever your wrist says. A month before that, a different greenhorn on my crew cracked an aluminum boss on a fuel pump because he guessed at it instead of grabbing the torque wrench out of the box two feet away. These aren't dumb kids, they came out of A&P school knowing better. Somewhere between the classroom and the floor they pick up the habit of eyeballing it because the older guys do it and it looks faster. Problem is the older guys earned that feel over 20 years of doing the same job on the same airframe, and even they still pull specs on anything that matters. I keep a laminated card in my box with the common values for the stuff I touch daily so there is no excuse. How do you all handle it when a new hire blows off the manual, do you correct them or let the inspector catch it?
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